"22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Hebrews 10:22-25
The modern versions rightly translate 23 as 'the profession of our hope and this makes the Apostle's threefold exhortation highly instructive and significant, both in that it corresponds to the familiar pattern of New Testament epistles with their emphasis on the work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, and also in that the remaining three chapters of the epistle are devoted to a lengthy exposition of 22-24: chapter 11, faith; chapter 12, hope; chapter 13, love. In 22, the meaning of 'hearts sprinkled and bodies washed' is that we are to have both the inward life and outward cleansed. There is no reference to baptism: moral, rather than ceremonial, cleansing is in view and the Apostle is speaking of the necessity of outward life and practice corresponding to inward cleansing. There is so much in 24 to challenge us. This simple word, 'Consider one another' cuts right across our self-preoccupation and selfcentredness. The fact is, we usually have so little time to think of anyone but ourselves, and many of the sins of the saints arise precisely here. We hurt people so terribly by our thoughtlessness – not by active malice, but simply because we did not think. And the reason we did not think was because we were too engrossed in ourselves. Even in our prayers we are so taken up with our own spiritual state that we have scarcely ever reached the point of serious intercession for others. How few have 'a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathise'! We cannot have too much encouragement towards this blessed end. Indeed, the Apostle's word is 'provoke', and this indicates how prone we are to lapse from such an attitude even when once we have begun to think a little of others. There is a mass of un-cooperation that requires constant prodding and disturbance, and we must help one another in this as, left to ourselves, we sink so easily into apathy and self-absorption.